OUTCAST

I saw him for first time when I was starting high school and we hit it off immediately. Great friends we became, occasionally going out together to get a drink or two then one day he decided to tell me everything about his life. We were exhausted, we were from school on a Friday evening with my parents gone for the weekend so I decided to call him over for a game of Fifa and Need for speed. We played around a bit then when we were exhausted we did what we did most when we were together, we had a deep intellectual conversation. That is when he began…

‘You know Bryan, when I was younger, I had anger issues. I was always angry with a lot of people and things around me. I would get mad at my parents sometimes and blame them for the way I was. Sometimes, when I was at my ultimate lowest, I would be angry at God to. I blamed him for making me this way. I was always the standout, the outcast, without even choosing to be that way. I used to think being an albino as a curse. it affected me so badly that I couldn’t allow myself to be seen in public places; malls, parties, congested places of all sorts.

When I was in Grade 1, my very fast day of school, my classmates kept on asking me what was wrong with my skin. Bare in mind these were just children who had probably not seen an albino but then was that I had also been wondering why I was the way I am so it affected me. One even called me an alien just because I was the only pale child in a class of majority black children. This really hit me hard and I never liked schools since that day. Yes, can you imagine? Hating school at a tender age meaning I grew up all this time with the same hatred for school just because of a first day which could have went better than that. I did not even want to come back to school after that horrible first day but you cannot blame me. I ended up getting a transfer to a smaller private school in the outskirts of town just so as to avoid masses of children. That was generally my childhood summarized into a few a few minutes. Sad, lonely and depressing. I never allowed myself to play and enjoy myself like other children. An entire stage of my life was gone just like that.

At 8th Grade, I began to open up more to people and started to really explore humanity. I made my friend real friend at this time. Her name was Ana. Ana was the girl in class I was forced to sit next to in class when I arrived at school for my first day. I started school a month later than most students because I had to go to therapy because apparently I was mentally scarred by my skin condition. I needed to heal mentally before I embarked on my latest challenge of teen hood according to my therapist. When I came to school, I was put in 8D, Mr Dan’s class and this was the class which made me. I feel like my life started this time, when I was put in this class. If you a Christian Bryan and believe in God, this was what people called God’s plan for me. I finally saw it. He put me in this class for a reason, maybe redemption for making me an albino but yes this class changed me.

I met Ana that day but even though we sat next to each other I didn’t really get to know her until second term. She kept on trying to get to know me but I kept on doing what I know best; pushing her back. Finally when I let down the walls surrounding fragile little me that is when we became friends. We talked about everything, I told her about my childhood and she told me about how messed up hers was too. I don’t know if this sounds wrong or what but hearing about how messed up her childhood was, made me feel better about mine and gave me the chance to start accepting it and stop running away from my fears. She taught me how to trust a human being, how to open up for the first time and all. She was my angel in this life but like every angel, once its job is done it has to go away, we parted when she went to Ireland and I haven’t seen her for 2 years now.

After meeting Ana, I can now go out. I have finally accepted myself and my skin condition. Even though some people still haven’t accepted it, it does not hurt me or get to me like it did back then. Acceptance is key because once one starts accepting themselves for who they are, nothing can bring them down. Nowadays I am all about meeting people and socializing. I am enjoying life just as you see we are but anyway, enough about me for now…’ and just life that I finally got it. How it feels being a natural outcast. It hurt me, left me feeling sorry for everyone who has to go through this. No one shouldn’t be made to feel like an outcast like this, especially in their own home. Albinos are human beings with feelings just like us and do not deserve to be treated like this. No one deserves treatment of this nature. Say No to any form of discrimination.